This invention relates to a torque coupling and particularly to a coupling for securing axially aligned shafts and supporting them independently of each other.
It is desirable in a turbine type of power plant to remove either the compressor section or the turbine section and leave in place the remaining section. Hence, as is well known in the art, the mating shafts of the turbine and compressor section are united by a spline and a coupling which keeps the shaft in place. Typically an internal nut engageable from either end of the engine is decoupled and one or the other sections can thereby be removed. Heretofore, the problem arose in reassembly by virtue of the fact that the remaining shaft could drop or move making it difficult to align the mating shafts.
I have found that I can obviate this problem by providing an idle shaft that includes stepped lands supporting each mating shaft independently allowing one to be removed while the other is supported in place. The idle shaft is frictionally supported to the mating shaft avoiding the necessity of incorporating a spline. Additionally the stepped lands can be machined at the same set up providing greater concentricity. Also it is an important feature of this invention, by virtue of the utilization of the idle shaft, the splines on the mating shafts do not serve to center each of these shafts.